About

Edinburgh Science Foundation is an educational charity, founded in 1989, which operates Edinburgh Science's Education and Festival programmes. We are best known for organising Edinburgh’s annual Science Festival – the world’s first public celebration of science and technology and still one of Europe’s largest – our science education outreach programmes, Generation Scienceand Careers Hive and our community engagement work.

Our mission is to inspire, encourage and challenge people of all ages and backgrounds to explore and understand the world around them. As leaders in our field of Science Communication, we work year-round to create and deliver dynamic hands-on workshops and exhibitions and inspirational shows, discussions, debates and performances that continually push the boundaries of public engagement with science. Communication and engagement is at the core of all our work and we strive to ensure that this is embedded in all aspects of our organisation.

Our 2019 Festival spanning Saturday 6 – Sunday 21 April saw major successess in the shape of our programme and our new Festival Hub – The Pleasance. With a focus on Frontiers in celebraiton of the 50th anniversary of the moon landings, we welcomed 175,000 visitors to explore the world around them, ask the difficult questions and get hands-on with science, technology, engineering and maths. Our education touring programme Generation Science reached more than 55,000 pupils at 560 across all 32 of Scotland's local constituencies. Secondary schools careers event Careers Hivewelcomed nearly 3000 of students to the National Museum of Scotland to explore real-world STEM careers, discover their own strengths and chat to industry volunteers.

Edinburgh Science also operates a large-scale international programme of work under our Worldwide arm. It regularly presents events overseas and is currently the Major Programming Partner of the annual Abu Dhabi Science Festival, helping to curate, produce and deliver the event. For international partners, the team at Edinburgh Science provide engaging content, curatorial advice on programming and business planning support, along with expert staff and training for local science communicators.